Click here to view a full slideshow of photos from the concert.Best of the Best Concert With Gyptian, Barrington Levy, Capleton, Nicki Minaj, Gucci Mane, Diddy, and othersBicentennial Park, MiamiSunday, May 30, 2010Better Than: Last year’s Best of the Best. The Review:Another Best of the Best is in the bag, and this…
Headliner Market Group’s Memorial Day Weekend 2010 PartyHosted by Amber Rose, Allen Iverson, Mario, and CassieWith Music by DJ Clue and Stevie J. Club Play, Miami BeachFriday, May 28, 2010Better Than: Staying at home based on stereotypes about Memorial Day Weekend in South Beach. First Impression: This was not going to be…
Oracledang FestivalWith Raffa Jo, Radioboxer, Mayday, and othersWhite Room, MiamiFriday, May 28, 2010 Better Than: The sum of its parts The Review: Hot dang, White Room was white hot Friday night as Miami author J.J. Colagrande successfully incarnated the formerly fictional Oracledang music fest, making existential history in the name of local music,…
Dirty South’s methodical mixing skills can, perhaps, be traced back to the DJ’s humble beginnings. Born Dragan Roganovic in Belgrade, Serbia, the encroaching unrest in then-Yugoslavia sent his family packing to Melbourne, Australia when he was 13 years old. Already a budding music nut, young Roganovic began taping music from…
Mathew JonsonAgents of Time(Wagon Repair)Since first alighting on the international techno scene nearly a decade ago, Canadian producer Mathew Jonson has risen to unparalleled heights by way of a monstrous virtuosity that sets him apart from most of the dime-a-dozen producers out there. A technical purist of almost pedantic proportions,…
You’d be hard-pressed to name an uptempo, superstar DJ who has won a major DMC (Disco Mix Club) battle championship–or even entered one. The super-club circuit is filled with producers, storytellers and understated mixers, but razzle-dazzle, scratch-and-juggle spinners they’re not. While a few DMC winners (A-Trak, Craze) have made their…
It’s 2 a.m. on a Saturday night at Space. College kids and club crawlers, thugs and lovelies, Latinos, Key rats, and tourists from every country with an airport are all losing themselves en masse to the thunder of DJ Radamas. “I love this,” shouts Radamas over a wicked mix of…
Memorial Day Weekend is just about wrapped up, but if you’re determined, there are still some parties to hit up tonight. Hey, work doesn’t start until tomorrow morning, right? Here are a few events to check out.Uncle Luke’s Uncensored Finale at Sobe LiveNew York vs. Miami at MansionTrina’s album release…
The New PornographersTogether (Matador)It is with a grin and a nodding of heads that the New Pornographers introduce their new album, Together. Unlike their previous effort, Challengers, this album comes in like a lion, eschewing precious and academic pop tunes in favor of a more strident, yet no less intricate…
The annual Best of the Best concert has always been one of the crowning events of Memorial Day Weekend in Miami, and this year’s edition, held yesterday at Bicentennial Park, kept the momentum going. While the lineup of course featured the best in contemporary dancehall and reggae, this year’s version…
Though Pacha Massive was born in the Boogie-down Bronx, theirs is a global identity. They build their blend on traditional sounds from each member’s roots, like palo (from band member Nova’s native Dominican Republic) and cumbia (from the homeland, Colobmia, of the duo’s other half). The pair then blends those…
Rapper Chaos from local group Grind Mode (“I’m So High”) is probably more “Miami” than anybody I’ve ever met. Last year he gave me his list of the top 100 things to do to survive Memorial Day Weekend in Miami, which instantly became a Memorial Day Weekend classic. While it’s…
Lil Wayne is currently behind bars, but still he’s managing to pull off the release of about four videos within the span of this weekend via MTV. Two of them feature local group Mayday playing backup for Weezy.The first video is for the Cool & Dre-produced “Da Da Da,” which was released today…
Praise Jebus! There is a god, and his name is Roman Jones! For those of us already dreading the drive up to Fort Lauderdale’s Culture Room to see La Roux perform live on August 4 have another option. Mansion has booked the British electropop outfit two days later on August…
Everyone and their mother seems to be offering a free Memorial Day Weekend mixtape, but for something with a little more indie-type flavor and hometown, grassroots pride, check out this offering from 10K Islands. The label and blog is the newest spinoff of Honor Roll Music, with a sharper focus…
The last few years were pretty barren in hip-hop for female rappers. The once-great spitfires seemed to have all disappeared, tried to become actresses, or wound up in jail, even, in the case of the great Queen Bee, Lil Kim.Lil Kim’s out now, but the successor to her throne seems…
Mo & Madafo Jazz JamMiami Shores Country Club, Miami ShoresThursday, May 27, 2010Better Than: Caddy Shack The Review:Curiosity and country club envy initially inspired me to investigate the sign on Biscayne Boulevard and NE 100th Street: “Miami Shores Country Club now open to the public, live jazz Thurs. Fri.” I…
Six weeks ago, the Sin City’s unelected, unofficial representatives of the undead, Lil Daggers, got blitzed in Brooklyn, made friends with all the zombies there, and eventually returned home a conquering horde full of Bushwick and Williamsburg’s finest booze and brains. The bad news: No one remembers a thing. When…
There’s a lot to cover at Best of the Best, with so many headlining artist advertised, and with so many headliners also bringing the vague promise of unnamed “friends.” What’s more, neither fans nor artist sin the hip-hop and Caribbean music genres are really known for their punctuality. Still, with…
By tonight, the Memorial Day Weekend festivities on South Beach will kick into high gear. If you’ve got patience, cash to burn, and serious swagger, there’s plenty to do tonight. Highlights include a Young Money/Cash Money blowout at Mansion that should wind up near-impossible to get into without connections, and…
We are only two weeks away until we pissed off people announce the 2010 Best of Miami winners. The choices have already been made and are in the book, but who won is currently only the knowledge of the editorial board — and no matter what people say, our sales…
Got to love M.I.A., a.k.a., Maya Arulpragasam. New York Times Magazine contributor Lynn Hirschberg, wrote an fascinating and intimate piece on the Sri Lankian-by-the-way-of-London artist. In it, Hirschberg writes about Maya’s past and how it influences her work today. The writer also seems a bit cynical about if Maya is…
